Recovery? Call the Marketing Dept.

The economists in charge of orchestrating our recovery have done a good job explaining how people and businesses are behaving. But not such a hot job of changing that behavior.

People must spend, they explain, not save. Then they advocate more government “stimulus” that — by its packaging — stimulates saving, not spending.

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Time to call in the marketing guys.

Done right, marketing can make products seem desirable, persuading people to behave in different ways. Marketing’s based on the fact that, in a free society like ours, more people behave as they want than as they’re told.

We’re now at a rare moment when what’s in our national interest is something most of us like to do – spend money. Yet so far we’ve all failed, miserably, to connect those dots.

1. Offer an appealing product. Sorry Mr. President: a “reduced personal payroll tax deduction” may be good policy — but you don’t need a poll to know it lacks curb appeal. Plus, the packaging is too small (weekly or bi-weekly bite-size servings), and undermines its intended use. It arrives as part of a direct-deposit paycheck that goes in the bank, not in the wallet. But that’s all easy to fix.

First the product: Let’s call it “Stimbucks.” Stimbucks are that same familiar payroll tax reduction – but designed to be spent, not saved. They would come packaged as a pre-loaded debit card. No red-blooded American needs to be told what to do with a debit card – we spend every dime. And the “spending amounts” would be healthy portions, representing your tax reduction for a significant period; say, six months.

2. Make them want it and use it. Let’s park the partisan rhetoric and instead spark the popular passion. It’s time for a patriotic call to action that asks people to Do for Their Country by Doing For Themselves. “Help Spend America Back to Health.”

3. Set a time limit. There’s a reason that one in three U.S. shopping dollars generally change hands in the 10 days prior to Christmas — it’s because Dec. 25 is a “hard stop” deadline. Similarly, if the objective is to get the spending stream flowing quickly – and not to waste these dollars on savings – then require they be spent by a date certain or they “expire.” Then they would revert to the Treasury at no cost to the taxpayer. Of course, that date could be extended, if economic conditions warrant.

4. Sweeten the pot. Here we apply “co-branded partnerships” to make each Stimbuck of even greater value to the consumer, and leverage Uncle Sam’s contribution to the program. It happens by getting Main Street to embrace Stimbucks. We can hold Stimbucks Sales on products most critical to the recovery: made-in-America items, discretionary purchases, durable goods, etc. Individual states can make Stimbucks purchases sales-tax free.

5. Keep them engaged. Much as we value our individualism, we all long to be on the winning team. So let’s have Stimbuck contents across America, Let Eastern states compete against Western, National League cities vs. American League. Let the people know how well it’s working – no, how well they are making it work.

Above all, let’s make this a collective enterprise that unites all Americans in common purpose, helps heal the country — and lets us all have a little much-deserved fun.

J. Peter Segall is managing director of the Washington office of Edelman, a global communications firm.